Library / English Dictionary

DAZZLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Brightness enough to blind partially and temporarily

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("dazzle" is a kind of...):

brightness (the location of a visual perception along a continuum from black to white)

Derivation:

dazzle (to cause someone to lose clear vision, especially from intense light)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Amaze or bewilder, as with brilliant wit or intellect or skill

Example:

The dancer dazzled the audience with his turns and jumps

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "dazzle" is one way to...):

amaze; astonish; astound (affect with wonder)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

To cause someone to lose clear vision, especially from intense light

Example:

She was dazzled by the bright headlights

Synonyms:

bedazzle; daze; dazzle

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "dazzle" is one way to...):

blind (render unable to see)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

dazzle (brightness enough to blind partially and temporarily)

Credits

 Context examples: 

"It looks like a fairy world," said Meg, smiling to herself, as she stood behind the curtain, watching the dazzling sight.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“Heaven aid me now!” said she; and she took the casket that the sun had given her, and found that within it lay a dress as dazzling as the sun itself.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I did so, and immediately all the troops gave a shout between terror and surprise; for the sun shone clear, and the reflection dazzled their eyes, as I waved the scimitar to and fro in my hand.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He was dazzled by it.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

She saw all the glories of the camp—its tents stretched forth in beauteous uniformity of lines, crowded with the young and the gay, and dazzling with scarlet; and, to complete the view, she saw herself seated beneath a tent, tenderly flirting with at least six officers at once.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

This is 10 to 30 times higher than the largest auroral potentials observed at Earth, where only several thousands of volts are typically needed to generate the most intense auroras — known as discrete auroras — the dazzling, twisting, snake-like northern and southern lights seen in places like Alaska and Canada, northern Europe, and many other northern and southern polar regions.

(Jupiter's Auroras Present a Powerful Mystery, NASA)

The height of the trees and the thickness of the boles exceeded anything which I in my town-bred life could have imagined, shooting upwards in magnificent columns until, at an enormous distance above our heads, we could dimly discern the spot where they threw out their side-branches into Gothic upward curves which coalesced to form one great matted roof of verdure, through which only an occasional golden ray of sunshine shot downwards to trace a thin dazzling line of light amidst the majestic obscurity.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If you plan to close on a house, hire a home-designer, or need to sign a lease, March 20 is your dazzling day to do it.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

If that girl had proper opportunity to dress, Mr. Eden, and if she were taught how to carry herself, you would be fairly dazzled by her, and so would all men.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)